Waste Management and Greenopolis train players to recycle through Facebook game

Recycling technology company Greenopolis--you know, the recycling kiosks at your local Wholefoods?--launched a Facebook game today to bolster its efforts on the green front and capture to social gaming crowd, Oceanopolis. The game is designed to be a companion to the points system already in place with the Greenopolis (a subsidiary of Waste Management) kiosks scattered across the nation, which have already recycled over 4 million items, the company claims.

Players can earn interchangeable points within the island building and upkeep game to increase their standing as a Greenopolis member. In the game, you'll collect trash from the island, save washed up sea creatures and build a clean island paradise using the trash treasure you find. Players can also turn in the digital garbage to the Greenopolis compacter inside the game for additional points to use toward real-life discounts at stores that have a kiosk on site.

"We have a goal to triple the amount of items we recycle by 2020," said vice president of organic growth of Waste Management Carl Rush to Venture Beat. "Oceanopolis will help us reach this goal by integrating new technologies with our established network of recycling facilities."

Other than this unique feature, there isn't much more substance to the game, but this is another important step towards both the oft-alluded to gamification movement and the company's goal for 2020. Now if only there were something similar out there for gas price discounts.